Monthly Archives: December 2014

Personification is the commonly used literary device of attaching human traits and characteristics to animals or inanimate objects. I think of personification similar to the way we think about rhyming – tricky to do well, but so wonderful when it works. Since everyday objects are not often seen as sentient or …

JANEE TRASLER is the author and illustrator of many books including the wildly popular Chickies board book series. Each one of these books is fun, adorable, and totally chickified. Evidence: But today I wanted to focus on Janee’s latest picture book, Mimi and Bear in the Snow (FSG, 2014). This is one …

It’s killing me, it’s genius…Patricia MacLachlan wrote a perfect nonfiction picture book using only one sentence. Well, technically there’s two question marks, but still…The Iridescence of Birds is a biography of Henri Matisse that manages to convey most of his childhood environment, his relationship with his mother, his interests, his personality …

We all have favorite picture books. They bring back memories, they remind us a time in our lives, they enchant us. There is one book that has impacted, affected, and influenced me more than any other. And it happens to be a Christmas book. It is The Night Before Christmas,

This new picture book by Katheryn Russell-Brown and Frank Morrison tells the true story of Melba Liston, who started playing her big trombone when she was just a little girl. She went on to become a celebrated jazz musician, playing with Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and Quincy Jones. …

I wanted to start this post with: I fell in love with Henry and Elliebelly the first time… But I feel like I start too many posts that way. Which in no way reflects a sad truth: I rarely fall in love with ANY book. I’m more often disappointed/disenchanted. So when …